[simonskid]

SORRY, HAVING HAD A LOOK AT THE FORUM TOPICS THIS ONE IS BETTER IN HARDWARE ETC - I'VE REPOSTED IT THERE.

Hi,

I'm trying to update computers at our local school, and we have the opportunity to replace some of the very old machines with second-hand newer machines whhich have had the hard-drives removed.

Problems are: school computers have licenced applications on the hard-drives which we cannot reinstall (disks are missing).

Is it possible to simply remove the hard-drives from the old machines and put them in the new? OS is win98 2nd edition. What problems might we encounter? What is the difficulty level (I'm a programmer, rather than a builder!!)


Thanks for any help,

Simons

Edited by simonskid, 09 November 2006 - 02:20 PM.

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One of the problems you will encounter by installing a drive in a newer computer is that windows will "find new hardware" on every new hardware, and will then install the drivers if the OS has them. If the hardware on the motherboard is newer than the OS you may need to find and download drivers for the hardware.

In the meantime, even if windows 98SE has the right drivers, the OS will install the new drivers but will not delete the old drivers from device manager. This can cause a crash of the OS which can cause blue screens, or even repetitive rebooting of the computer that you can't stop. You will notice there will be double sets of drivers in device manager and you have to find which ones are the correct new drivers.

To cure this you must first go into device manager and delete most of the drivers there for any motherboard related devices. This includes almost everything there as most of the time all the drivers are different than what was used in the old computer. You then shut down the computer, transfer the HD to the new computer, then start the new computer and let windows install the drivers for everything it finds. This is NOT a failsafe method as you may not have the correct drivers for the new MB's hardware. What it does do is give the old operating system a chance at working good enough for you to find what drivers are needed.

Another problem is that some installed programs will still not work simply because the program was not designed to use newer hardware and does not know what to do then. You usually start getting illegal operation errors then.

I have done this numerous times with varying results. The closer the new computer is in relations to the old computer, hardware wise, the easier it is to get working. As Lord_Shaiton says you may have problems with memory amoung other issues on doing this kind of swap.

SRX660

[SRX660]

One of the problems you will encounter by installing a drive in a newer computer is that windows will "find new hardware" on every new hardware, and will then install the drivers if the OS has them. If the hardware on the motherboard is newer than the OS you may need to find and download drivers for the hardware.

In the meantime, even if windows 98SE has the right drivers, the OS will install the new drivers but will not delete the old drivers from device manager. This can cause a crash of the OS which can cause blue screens, or even repetitive rebooting of the computer that you can't stop. You will notice there will be double sets of drivers in device manager and you have to find which ones are the correct new drivers.

To cure this you must first go into device manager and delete most of the drivers there for any motherboard related devices. This includes almost everything there as most of the time all the drivers are different than what was used in the old computer. You then shut down the computer, transfer the HD to the new computer, then start the new computer and let windows install the drivers for everything it finds. This is NOT a failsafe method as you may not have the correct drivers for the new MB's hardware. What it does do is give the old operating system a chance at working good enough for you to find what drivers are needed.

Another problem is that some installed programs will still not work simply because the program was not designed to use newer hardware and does not know what to do then. You usually start getting illegal operation errors then.

I have done this numerous times with varying results. The closer the new computer is in relations to the old computer, hardware wise, the easier it is to get working. As Lord_Shaiton says you may have problems with memory amoung other issues on doing this kind of swap.

SRX660

[simonskid]

Hi,
Thanks for the tips - I can't look up the make/model of the existing hard-drives until wednesday next week, when I fight the next installment of my "keep-them-alive-for-another-week" battle. They are pretty old though - I guess P1 or at most P2 and very slow (noone in their right mind would put up with them)

The new computers I was hoping to use are described as follows:

Compusys P4 1.6GHz Tower Unit
Memory 256Mb
No HDD
With CD-Rom

I can get more info about them if it looks a viable option.

Thanks again,

Simon S

PS. Just so I get the right info - is it the entry in Control panel->System Properties->Device Manager->Disk Drives (ie. the one that says "Generic IDE Disk Type01" on my home computer) or are more details available somewhere else?

Edited by simonskid, 10 November 2006 - 07:22 AM.